In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to talk about how to reduce and link the word 'to' and 'the' together, in a sentence, like this: to the. (loop four times)
在这节美式英语发音视频中，我们将要学习如何在句子中略读和连读单词“to”和“the”，就像这样，“to the”（循环四次）。
I've spent quite a bit of time in my videos talking about reduction and linking.
我在视频中已经花了一些时间来讲如何略读和连读。
And today, I want to take this specific case of linking the words 'to' and 'the',
今天，我想要利用连读“to”和“the”的特例
and talk about how to simplify the mouth movement when we're reducing these words, linking them, and making them very, very fast.
来讲讲略读、连读单词时如何简化嘴部动作以及如何快速发音。

The first thing I want to point out, is that there doesn't have to be any movement in the lips or the jaw:
我想指出的第一点是，我们不需要移动嘴唇或者下巴，
we can articulate this with just the tongue. To the. (loop seven times)
仅需舌头就可以发这个音。“to the”（循环七次）。
So, what are we doing here?
所以我们应该怎么做呢？
The word 'to' will reduce to either the true T-schwa sound, or the flap T-schwa sound. But for both of them, the tongue position will be the same.
单词“to”应该略读为清音弱读音或是闪音弱读音。但不管是哪种，舌头的位置都是一样的。
So the tongue tip is up at the roof of the mouth, ttt, with the jaw quite closed and the teeth pretty much together: tt, dd, tt, dd.
所以舌尖抵住上颚，ttt，下巴闭合，牙齿几乎在一起，tt，dd，tt，dd。
And I can make that sound just by moving the tongue, the jaw doesn't have to move: t, d, t, d.
然后我可以只靠移动舌头而不移动下巴来发音，t，d，t，d。
Now, to make the TH for the word 'the'. I do not need to bring the tongue all the way through the teeth.
对于单词“the”中的th，不需要把舌头一直伸出牙齿。
I can just bring it down, so it's touching just behind, where the teeth come together. To, the (loop three times). To the (loop seven times).
舌头可以放下来，放在牙齿咬合处后面，“to”，“the”（循环3次），“to the”（循环7次）。
Let's look at this up close and in slow motion. To the (loop nine times).
我们离近了往上看，看一下慢语速的动作。“to the”（循环9次）。
The word T-H-E is pronounced with the EE vowel when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong.
当后面的单词以元音或者双元音开头时，单词“the”的发音是元音EE。
For example, to the other side, to the east. In these cases as well, all the articulation will happen with the tongue.
例如，“to the other side”，“to the east”。在这些例子中，发音也是仅需要舌头移动。
It will probably take a good bit of time and drilling to get this new way of saying 'to the' into your habit. But it is worth doing.
可能需要一段时间和训练才会习惯这种说“to the”的新方式，但这是值得的。
Because when we simplify the mouth movement, it means it's going to be easier to say it quickly in speech.
因为当我们简化了嘴唇移动，意味着我们能够更简单地在演讲中快速发音。
And when we reduce and pronounce these unstressed words very quickly like this,
而当我们略读或者用这种方式快速说出这些非重读单词时，
it provides a nice contrast for the stressed words, which are much longer, and have a lot more shape.
会与那些更长更多形状的重读单词形成对比。
As you drill these two words, put them into sentence fragments, and eventually sentences. To the (loop three times). To the store (loop three times).
练习这两个单词时，把它们放到句子片段中，然后放到整个句子中。“to the”（循环3次）。“to the store ”（循环3次）。
To the restaurant (loop three times). I'm going to the restaurant (loop two times). It will really help you to integrate that into your everyday speech.
“to the restaurant”（循环3次）。I'm going to the restaurant（循环2次）。这真的会帮助你将其融入到你的日常讲话中。
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
这次的学习就到这里，非常感谢使用Rachel's English。